Wing Commander Shivangi Singh, India’s first and only woman Rafale pilot, has now another feather added in her cap with her transition to the Hawk advanced jet trainer fleet, taking up the responsibility of grooming trainee pilots.
She has posted to an Indian Air Force training establishment. She has joined a training unit, where her frontline experience, skill, and mentorship will help shape the IAF’s next generation of fighter pilots, sources were cited as saying by CNN-News18.
Who is Shivangi Singh?
Hailing from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, Wing Commander Shivangi Singh developed a fascination for aviation after a childhood visit to the Air Force Museum in New Delhi. A graduate of Banaras Hindu University (BHU), she later joined the Indian Air Force Academy (AFA) in Hyderabad, where she underwent intensive training to become a fighter pilot.
Commissioned into the Indian Air Force (IAF) in 2017 as part of the second batch of women fighter pilots, Shivangi Singh began her career flying the MiG-21 Bison, one of the IAF’s most demanding aircraft. She then moved to the Rafale fleet in Ambala in 2020, becoming the only woman pilot trained on the platform during her induction phase.
Her operational experience includes high-tempo missions and participation in major IAF exercises that earned her a reputation for precision and composure in challenging missions.
She had been serving with a Rafale squadron in Ambala where she was photographed with President Droupadi Murmu during the President’s Rafale sortie earlier this year.
The squadron leader recently completed the Flying Instructor Course at the Flying Instructors School, Air Force Station Tambaram- one of the most rigorous and prestigious training programmes for military aviators.
During Operation Sindoor, Shivangi was part of operational deployments when Pakistan peddled false claims alleging a Rafale had been shot down and that she was in custody. The Indian Air Force swiftly denied the claims, calling them baseless propaganda designed to mislead the public.
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